Jan. 14—Awarding half of the state’s electoral college votes based on the showing of presidential candidates in each congressional district would enfranchise more citizens and motivate nominees to return for general elections to campaign in New Hampshire, state Sen. Bill Gannon, R-Sandown, said Tuesday.
Presently, all four votes are awarded in a winner-take-all format with the statewide election victor taking them.
Gannon’s bill (SB 11) would have New Hampshire join Maine and Nebraska in allocating at least some of their electoral votes by the congressional district count.
“SB 11 is a step towards a more representative democracy, will encourage presidential candidates to be engaged with our voters and continue our proud tradition of transparent, free and fair elections here in the Granite State,” Gannon told the Senate Election Law and Municipal Affairs Committee.
Under the proposed scenario, two electoral votes would be awarded based on the statewide total vote while one each would be given to the winner of the count in each congressional district.
Gannon called his bill “bipartisan,” since both political parties would have benefitted from it in the past.
In 2000, then-Democratic Vice President Al Gore lost to Republican George W. Bush by two electoral votes after New Hampshire narrowly went with the GOP contender.
Had this arrangement been in place, however, Gore would have gotten one vote from the state’s 2nd Congressional District that hasn’t chosen a Republican hopeful since 1988.
Then 16 years later, former Democratic Secretary of State Hillary Clinton edged Republican Donald Trump in New Hampshire.
But Gannon pointed out that Trump won the count in the 1st Congressional District, so would have gotten one of the state’s four votes had his bill been in effect.
“This is not just a political science exercise; we want everyone’s voice to be heard,” Gannon said.
Change would boost primary
The state senator believes Trump would have returned to New Hampshire to campaign if he stood a chance of winning the vote in the 1st District against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, who took the entire state by 2.4%.
“We would like New Hampshire to remain the most engaged state,” said Gannon, who supported former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley during the New Hampshire primary contest that Trump won by double digits. “Trump didn’t come and campaign in New Hampshire because he didn’t feel he had a shot at it.”
But while Gannon had seven Senate colleagues backing his bill, including Majority Leader Regina Birdsell, R-Hampstead, he was all alone defending it during Tuesday’s hearing.
Liz Tentarelli, president of the League of Women Voters, opposed the bill and said the best way to achieve Gannon’s goal of voter representation would be to get rid of the Electoral College.
Nebraska officials thought its hybrid electoral vote model would attract both candidates to campaign there. Neither one did, Tentarelli said, with both Harris and Trump sending their vice presidential candidates and surrogates to campaign there.
In Nebraska, Harris got one of the state’s five votes in a congressional district while Trump got one of Maine’s four electoral votes in that manner.
“They happened to balance out this time; I don’t know where New Hampshire would be,” Tentarelli said.
Ken Barnes of Contoocook said this could make the electoral college system subject to partisan power grabs.
“This way of doing it by congressional district could be manipulated, skewed by political gerrymandering and the redrawing of congressional district lines,” Barnes said.
klandrigan@unionleader.com